


You're still there, aren't you?

by Marron121



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cute Kids, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Light Angst, Self-Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:43:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22576342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marron121/pseuds/Marron121
Summary: Leo gets excited when he fins out he can create a new type of portal.Sadly for everyone involved, things don't go as planned.
Relationships: Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & April O'Neil & Raphael (TMNT)
Comments: 48
Kudos: 319





	1. Replacement

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for my friend Enola, who likes angst and I recently found out that my angst seems to be good.
> 
> So here we are.

It’s a seemingly calm afternoon in the lair of the brothers, which isn’t weird but it’s pretty uncommon, especially as of late with all the ass kicking Raph and his brothers have had to do to some villains.

So the snapping turtle doesn’t complain when, for once, he can just relax: he’s listening to some music — _ I Will Survive _ , one of his favorites— and he’s catching on some reading which he has been delaying for a long time.

So he flips the pages on his comic and keeps going, gasping when the heroes on the page get ambushed by villains. Raph sits in his bed, and gets totally engrossed in the story, but is still careful about gripping the comic too strongly and ripping it; an issue that has happened more times than he wants to admit, looking at the stash of comics who are barely holding themselves together, filled with adhesive tape everywhere.

“Heeeeey, Raphie…”

“Yeah?” Raph carefully closes the comic book at looks at the door, but when he doesn’t see Leo he puts the book aside and gets up from the bed. “Leo? Where are you?”

Leo suddenly appears in the door, holding his sword and wearing a smug smile on his face.

“Raph.”

“...Yeah?”

“Guess what.”

Raph narrows his eyes. “What.”

Leo put his sword in front of him, and lightly slaps the side of it. “This bad boy can make more than one type of portal.”

Raph blinks at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

Leo blinks back, and simply slaps the side of his blade again. “This bad boy can make more than one type of portal.”

“No, no, I heard you the first time.”

Raph then opens his eyes wide, finally realizing what his brother is saying. 

“WAIT, WHAT!?”

Leo groans and moves to slap the sword a third time but Raph stomps towards him and shakes his shoulders.

“What do you mean that your sword can make more than one type of portal?!”

“Oh, Raph, what could I possibly mean?” Leo pushes his brother away with one hand, grabbing the sword with the other and putting it in his shell. “That I can now create two types of portals! Oh wait, I’m gonna shove it in Donnie’s face, I want to see how he reacts.”

“Hey, Leo, wait a second—” Raph groans when his brother doesn’t wait for him, and he quickly stops the music before following behind, catching up with him. “Can you really make more than one type of portal?”

“Yeah!” Leo looks excited, and Raph can’t help but feel the excitement as well, his body shivering a little as the two of them strut over to Donnie’s lab. “Like, I was waving my sword as usual and suddenly this weird color appeared?”

“Oh, it was a different color?”

“Yeah! My portals are usually blue, but this one was—” Leo waves his hands back and forth. “Like, a vibrant green? Oh man, once you see it you’re gonna love it.”

Raph is about to ask something, but then they reach Donnie’s lab and are quickly greeted by Mikey, who is there drawing in one of the tables.

“Hi Raph! Hi Lee!”

“Mikey, I can make two types of portals!”

“What!?” Mikey leaps from his position to Leo, embracing him tightly. “Oh my gosh, that’s amazing! Can you show it?”

“Wait, wait,” Raph says, raising his hands. “We should get Donnie first, right? I bet he wants to see them too.”

Mikey gasps. “You’re right! Wait here, I’ll be right back with him.”

Leo quickly jumps to follow Mikey when he starts to run deeper into the lab. “Wait, I wanna tell him! Miguel!”

Raph laughs and quickly follows behind.

A couple of minutes later, and all of them are going to an abandoned building close to the lair, Raph leading the way.

  
“So, you’re telling me,” Donnie says, looking Leo’s sword up and down like it grew a talking head, “that suddenly you started making a new type of portal? Just like that?”

“Yeah!” Leo looks smugly at him. “What, are you jelly?”

“What?!” Donnie laughs, and Raph actually snorts hearing it. “Jealous,  _ me _ ? Please, I have enough manpower with my babies.” Donnie hugs his transforming tech bo, and speaks softly. “ _ Don’t worry, I’ll never let you go _ .”

Mikey interrupts, getting in between them.

“I can’t believe it! A new type of portal! What does it do?”

Leo looks to the side, scratching his neck. “Well, actually, I don’t know.”

Raph stops dead in his tracks, turning around. “Wait, you don’t know? How—how can you not know?”

“Hey, it’s not like I don’t want to!” Leo takes the sword out and waves it in front of him. “It’s just like, I was making the movements and then a different portal just appeared! But as soon as it appeared—poof!” Leo makes an explosion with his hands. “The portal just went away.”

“Huh, that is weird.” Donnie gets closer to Leo again, grabbing his sword and putting his glasses on. “As of late you haven’t had any problems creating portals, at least that I can remember.”

Leo scoffs, taking his sword back from Donnie’s hands. “Um, excuse you, but I haven’t had any problem creating portals, period.”

Raph sees that Donnie is about to start speaking again,so he clasps both of his brother’s shoulders. “Anyway, we’re almost at the building, so why don’t you try it there? Maybe you need a chance of scenery, yeah?”

Leo smiles at him, before starting to walk again. “Yeah, let’s. Unless  _ someone _ wants to waste our precious time.”

“Uuuuugh.” Donnie rolls his eyes, but quickly follows behind Leo.

Raph now is in the back, and Mikey climbs to his shell, his feet hanging a little off the floor.

“Hey, what do you think Leo’s new power will let him do?”

Raph looks up in thought for a second before answering. “To be honest, I don’t know. What do you think?”

Mikey looks to the side, and Raph doesn’t say anything, simply tries to move a little more slowly so his brother doesn’t get hurt with the spikes on his shell.

After a couple of seconds, Mikey makes a sound.

“Oh, I know! If Leo’s blue portals let him travel between places, maybe the green ones let him travel through time?”

“Huh. That doesn’t sound impossible.”

“That would be so cool!”

Mikey then starts listing all the various ways that the portal could work, and eventually even Leo and Donnie go along with it, each one saying weirder and more bizzare things than the last. Luckily for Raph, just when Leo is about to come up with something crazier than  _ a portal that clones you but your clon is evil and wants to murder you _ , they reach the abandoned building.

“Okay boys, there isn’t no one here but we should be—”

“YOU’RE ALL GONNA LOVE THIS!” Leo screams from the top of his lungs, making Raph jump in place. He groans, but calms himself down before talking.

“Leo, let’s try to be a little quiet,  _ please _ .”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Anyway—!”

Leo gets himself in the middle of the building, his brothers standing close by. He coughs before speaking.

“Okay, so here we can see…” Leo moves his sword, making a blue portal appear. “One of the my classic ol’ portals.”

He then passes a hand through the portal, making another one appear behind Mikey. Leo’s hand appear and tickles Mikey’s neck, making the younger brother laugh and push away his hand.

Leo retrieves it, laughing as well. “Okay, so now, get ready my dudes.” Leo grabs his sword with both hands, and gets himself ready.

The brothers take some steps back, and Raph watches closely as Leo, with a very serious look, slowly draws circles in the air. Raph could not see it, but he could sense it; where Leo was making the circles, something was accumulating, like it was a suction point of some kind.

“Woah…” Mikey, Donnie and Raph all look in amazement as a green portal appears, roughly the shape of the circle Leo was making with the sword. Raph feels something akin to buzzing coming from it, but before he can ask, the portal disappears into nothingness.

“Ugh, again!” Leo groans, a frown appearing on his face. “I don’t know why it disappears!”

Donnie puts his glasses back on and gets close to Leo, checking the sword again. “Just an hypothesis, but maybe you need to make it a certain way?”

“That may be it, but still.” Leo scoffs. “If I don’t know what the way is, it won’t be of any use.”

“Hey, I know!” Mikey gets close to Leo, grabbing his arm. “Maybe it’s like my demon thingy, that appears only when I move a certain way!”

“Oh!” Leo claps his hands together. “That may be it! Can you show me how you do it, Mikey?”

“Yeah!” Mikey takes out his weapon and starts to swing it, but Raph quickly stops him.

“Hey, we’re too close to the entrance here! Could you, like, do it a little more at the center? Please?”

“Oh, sure!” Mikey starts walking, and Leo quickly follows behind them.   
“Thanks, you two!” Raph then turns around, and when he sees Donnie isn’t moving, he gets close to him and punches him lightly in the shoulder. “You coming?”

“Wha—” Donnie looks at Raph, then at his other two brothers further away. “Oh, yeah, let’s go.”

Raph and Donnie start walking together, and Raph notices that Donnie is quieter than usual. He isn’t the most talkative of them —that honor goes to Leo or Mikey, depending on the day—, but he’s usually muttering to himself, or something. The total lack of silence coming from Donnie, who is just looking down, is a little bit worrying.

“Hey, you ok?”

“Hmm?” Donnie looks up, taking off his glasses. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

Raph stays a quiet a second before speaking. “It’s just, you’re too quiet.”

“I’m quiet most of the time.”

“Yeah, but like—” Raph opens his hands in front of him, trying to come up with the words. “You’re not this quiet. Usually when you’re like this something’s up in your head.”

The two reach a stop, and watch the youngest brothers move, each one with their weapons. Mikey is trying to give instructions to Leo on how to move, and by the looks on Mikey’s face Raph guesses Leo isn’t exactly doing it right.

“Look, Raph—”

“Hm?” Raph looks to Donnie, but when he sees his brother’s face Donnie looks down, again.

“It’s just— I checked the sword with my glasses, multiple times, and I think something’s not right.”

Raph narrows his eyes a little. “What do you mean?”   
“The components of the sword, the structure, even the mystic energy it has—it’s the same as before Leo said he could make these new portals.”

“But, they’re mystic weapons, right? They maybe can do stuff we still haven’t find out.”

Donnie groans. “I know. It’s logical to think that our weapons have abilities that we haven’t unlocked, but isn’t it weird?”

Raph looks back to Leo and Mikey. Mikey know is encouraging Leo, while he keeps making weird shapes with the sword.

  
Donnie continues to talk. “I just, I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like that portal belonged to the weapon, you know?

Raph’s mind instantly replies the little buzzing he felt when the green portal appeared before.

“Yeah, I get you.” He puts a hand on Donnie’s shoulder, the younger turtle looking up. “Let’s keep an eye out, alright?”

When Raph sees a tiny smile in Donnie’s face, he can’t help but smile as well. “Yeah. These two clowns can’t be the tiniest bit careful.”

Raph and Donnie get closer to the two, and it’s then that Leo finally manages to make another portal, Raph’s body shivering when he sees it. When the portal doesn’t instantly disappear, Mikey and Leo scream happily.

“Finally! It lives!” Leo is about to get his hand inside it when Raph stops him.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing? You have to be more careful.”

Leo rolls his eyes. “Fine,  _ dad _ .”

Raph looks at him with a bored look, but Donnie intervenes.

“We still don’t know what that portal does, Leo. For all we know, the moment you enter your arm your entire body could disappear, or something.”

“Ugh, you two are so boring today!” Leo looks to Mikey, a smile appearing on his face. “Let’s throw rocks through the portal.”

“Ooooh, rocks! Sounds fancy!”

The two youngest leave to find some rocks, and Raph and Donnie get closer to the portal. Raph can hear that weird buzzing again and it rubs him the wrong way.

“Hey Donnie, mind if you—”

“On it.”

Donnie puts his glasses back on, looking the portal up and down. He quickly shakes his head.

  
“No, there’s no mystic energy coming from this thing.” Donnie takes off his glasses, and looks at Raph. “This is so weird…”

Raph looks at his brother, then at the portal again.

“We’re back, baby!” Leo announces, with Mikey following close behind, the two of them carrying a ton of rocks of different sizes.

“I call dibs on throwing the first rock!” Mikey raises one arm, but Raph quickly stops him. The youngest brother looks at him, an angry look on his face. “Hey! What are you doing?”

“It’s just…” Raph looks to Donnie for answers, but he seems as lost as him. “Look, I—I don’t know about this.”

Raph can hear Leo laugh behind him.

“Dude, we’re talking mutant turtles.” Leo points to the green portal, still in place. “And you think a mystic portal is weird? Really?”

Raph tries a smile. “Um, yeah?” When Leo rolls his eyes and turns his back to him, Raph drops Mikey’s arm. “Hey! Don’t you dare!”

“It’s gonna be fine, really!”

“Leo! As the older brother I’m—”

Raph screeches when he sees Leo throw one of the rocks he’s carrying into the portal, the rock going inside it and disappearing.

“Leo! What did I tell you!” Raph gets close to Leo and crosses his arms, looking at him.

Leo simply shrugs him off. “I told you, didn’t I? Nothing happe—”

Leo’s body stumbles forward suddenly, and it only takes a second to Raph’s expression to turn into horror.

From the middle of Leo’s body there’s something that looks like a green human hand, that has grown from the portal and has impaled Leo from behind. Leo looks down in shock, and then looks to Raph. He opens and closes his mouth, buy only a bit of blood comes out.

An explosion sends him flying backwards, and Raph feels his body crash onto the ground, making him roll a couple times. For a moment the entire world is turning and moving, in ways that aren’t natural. Raph groans and grabs his head between his hands, trying to keep the world steady. 

  
“Leo!” Raph looks around, but he can barely see, his entire vision blurry. “Mikey! Donnie!”

He hears something, and through the ringing in his ears he manages to hear Donnie and Mikey scream.

  
But he doesn’t hear Leo.

As he gets up, Raph tries to regain his breathing, but he can only hyperventilate as the image of Leo with  _ that thing _ through his torso keeps haunting him, and he looks around desperate, trying to see anything, at least a signal that his brother is fine, that he’s alive—

“This is… quite the rare body.”

Raph turns around so fast he almost falls to the ground, holding himself with his hands in the last second. He darts his eyes quickly across the room, searching for Leo.

“Raph!” Donnie and Mikey scream in unison, getting near him and checking on him. Donnie speaks before Mikey can.

“Are you alright? Where’s Leo? Can you see him?”

Raph keeps looking frantically, and suddenly his movement stops. He points a shaky finger towards the middle of the room, where the explosion took place.

Above a pile of rubble it’s Leo, looking up to the sky, and Raph’s eyes start to water as he sees that his brother is fine.

“Leo!” Mikey gets up from where he was and starts running towards his brother. Raph feels like an eternity passes when he sees what happens next.

Raph sees Mikey run towards Leo.

Raph sees as Mikey suddenly gets knocked to the side, Leo having punched him in the face.

Raph hears Donnie screams and get up as well. Raph tries, but his legs feel like jelly.

Leo looks down, at where Mikey is on the ground. He opens his mouth and speaks.

“Leo…”

Raph notices it right at that moment.

Leo is talking in his voice, but it’s not exactly his. It’s devoid of life, too calm to be really the voice of their brother.

“Leo, what the hell?” Donnie hurries to Mikey, that’s still on the ground where he fell. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

Leo looks to Donnie, and then looks to Raph, and he sees it.

Leo’s eyes are green, and… that’s not really Leo.

In front of them, there’s someone wearing his brother’s skin, holding Leo’s sword.


	2. Realization

Raph looks up, straight into the eyes of Leo.

Or, to be more precise, to the eyes of whoever is in Leo’s body.

The person in front of him looks with bored eyes straight to Raph, and after a couple of seconds he returns his eyes to Donnie, who’s right in front of Mikey, still on the ground.

  
Donnie growls, gripping his tech-bo a little tighter.

“What do you think you did!? Are you out of your mind!?”

_ Leo _’s face doesn’t change in the slightest. He simply raises his sword and attacks.

Raph quickly summons a mystical arm, and as fast as he can snatches both Donnie and Mikey. Just before Leo’s sword cuts them he retracts the arm, leaving his brothers just behind him.

“What are you doing, Leo!?” Raph finally gets up, his legs trembling a little. “Why are you attacking us?”

_ Leo _ looks to them, the same bored expression on his face. He then opens his mouth and speaks.

“I am not Leo.”  
  


Raph’s tightens the grip on his tonfa. That’s not his brother’s voice. It’s similar, but it’s so wrong to hear it coming out of his body.

“If you are gonna call me something,” _ Leo _ looks up in thought for a second, “call me L.”

Raph hears Donnie growl behind him, but he still flinches when his brother screams.

“What the fuck are you on about?! Stop this bullshit, Leo!”

_ Leo _ —L, Raph thinks briefly— opens his mouth, but before he says anything he closes it again, and simply shakes his head.

“I have better stuff to do. I cannot waste my time here.”

“Wait right here!”

Raph starts running towards him, but L simply moves the sword to create a portal.

“No! Come back here!”

Raph jumps activating his mystic powers, but it’s just too late; L walks through the portal, Raph’s hand missing for a millimeter. He looks in pain as the portal closes in front of his face, and then closes his eyes when his body crashes to the ground.

“Raph!” Donnie comes quickly to his side, helping him get up. “Raph, are you okay? I—I don’t know what Leo is—”

“That’s not Leo.”

Donnie looks utterly confused at his brother. “Wha—Did you hit your head too hard? How can you say—”

“You heard him too! _ That _,” Raph moves his hands to where L was standing, “wasn’t Leo. It’s impossible.”

Donnie looks lost for words, opening and closing his mouth. Raph just stays quiet, looking at the space where the portal was, not empty.

“G—guys…”

The voice is barely a whisper, but both Raph and Donnie look at Mikey, still on the ground where Raph left him. He’s holding a face to his face, where L punched him.

“Why... was Leo like that…?”

Raph’s heart swells seeing his little brother, especially because Raph knows he’s holding back tears. Raph looks to Donnie, and when he sees his face, he knows that they need a big brother right now.

“Donnie, let’s go home.” Donnie looks at him and is about to talk, but Raph beats him to it. “We don’t know where that thing went, and Mikey needs ice for the bruise.”

Raph sees Donnie’s hands shake in place for a second, before he looks at Mikey. Donnie’s eyes squint a little, he looks to the ground, and saves his tech-bo.

  
“You’re right.” Donnie’s voice is quiet, barely enough for Raph to hear.

Raph simply carries Mikey on his shell, and the three of them walk home.

* * *

It’s been a couple of hours since the incident with Leo.

Mikey is almost asleep, trying to stay awake with Donnie and Raph, who are currently talking with Splinter. The pack of ice in his cheek is starting to melt, but even that doesn’t stop him from dozing off from time to time, Raph hugging him in his side.

Raph sees Splinter pace out around the room, scratching his chin. They’ve told him everything that happened, hoping that he maybe had some kind of idea about what happened.

He suddenly stops, and groans. Raph looks curious at him.

“What’s wrong, Pops? Do you have an idea?”

“I do, Red. I do.”

Splinter passes a hand through his face, and when he looks at his sons, Raph sees his expression soften immediately.

“I may know a way to fix this.”

“You do?” Donnie perks up, starting to get up. “What do we have to—”

“Not you, Purple.” Splinter puts a hand in Donnie’s shoulder. “You need to rest.”

“What?” Raph gets up, carefully leaving Mikey sitted. “Dad, we need to help Leo as well! We can’t just—”

“Boys.” Donnie and Raph flinch, like every time Splinter uses his serious voice with them. “This is not debatable. You will go to rest. I will handle this.”

Donnie and Raph open their mouth to argue, but when they see Splinter’s expression they know the decision is final. Donnie murmurs something angrily and quickly leaves the room. Raph sees that Mikey is almost asleep already, and gets down to carry him to his bed. 

“Red.”

Raph looks up to his father, carefully grabbing his brother bridal style. Splinter looks straight into his eyes before speaking.

“Please keep an eye on your brothers while I’m gone.”

Raph nods, and puts what he hopes is a confident smile. “You can count on me, Pops.”

Splinter smiles, sincerely. “I know.”

He then leaves the room, lightly touching Raph’s arm on his way out. Raph stays quiet there, not moving, but when he notices Mikey tremble in his arms he starts to walk towards the younger brother’s room.

They quickly reach their destination, and Raph carefully puts Mikey on his hammock, careful of not letting his brother fall off it. He notices that Mikey’s ice pack has become water at this point, and he thinks if removing it is a good idea or if he should just leave it there.

He decides to check Mikey’s cheek, and carefully grabs the ice bag and moves it a little away from his cheek; Raph can’t help but grimace when he notices the weird shade of purple, almost dark but not quite there yet.

Raph decides to leave the ice pack there, just in case.

When he gets out of Mikey’s room Raph really notices how tired he is; his entire body is screaming at him to go to bed, and he decides that he should listen to it; he starts the trip towards his room now but, from the corner of his eye, he catches the kitchen’s light on.

Raph stops dead in his tracks, and puts his ear to try and listen. When he hears the knowing sound of the coffee machine, he sighs and walks all the way there.

Donnie doesn’t wait for Raph to even enter the kitchen before speaking to him.

“Raph, please don’t. I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”

Raph enters the kitchen, and sees Donnie standing close to the coffee machine. Donnie’s eyes are focused on it, but Raph can see the tired look he’s wearing.

“Please, Donnie, just—”

“What did I just say, Raph?” Donnie looks to Raph over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes. “No. Just… no.”

Raph stays in the doorway, not sure of what to say. He opens his mouth but then Donnie then fully turns around and speaks before he has a chance.

“Really, how do you want me to just sleep when—when all this happened!?”

“Because we need to take a rest. We can’t just—”

“Oh, please, spare me the _ tired people don’t make good choices _ argument.” Donnie rolls his eyes. “We need to find a way to bring Leo back, and we need to find it now—”

“Dad already said that he was gonna fix this!”

“And you just want me to STAY HERE AND DO NOTHING!?”

Raph is taken aback by Donnie’s sudden scream, and it seems that Donnie is as well, from the way his eyes open suddenly after screaming. He looks angrily to the ground, avoiding Raph.

“I just—I knew something was wrong. And yet, I couldn’t do nothing. I—”

Donnie is taken aback when Raph suddenly hugs him.

Raph hugs his brother, because he knows he isn’t the best with words, but he tries to speak anyways.

“I feel the same, Donnie. But if dad told us he’s got this, then—we have to believe him.”

Both of them stay quiet there, not moving. Raph can faintly hear the sound of the coffee machine, indicating that the cup is already done. He thinks that he’s applying too much force and maybe hurting Donnie.

But then Donnie hugs him, and Raph just stays as still as he can, because he knows his brother isn’t the best with moments like this.

“I… I don’t like feeling useless.”

“I know.”

Donnie puts his head in Raph’s shoulder, his voice a little muffled.

“How... can you be so calm?”

“I have to be. I’m the big brother, after all.”

Raph lightly pats Donnie’s head, and he feels Donnie’s tired laugh reverberate through him.

After a short time, Donnie finally moves his head up, and Raph ends the hug. Donnie looks at him, a tired smile on his face.

“I’m also the big brother, okay? Don’t forget that.”

Raph smiles back.

“I won’t.”

Both of them leave the kitchen, and Raph turns the lights off, the coffee mug forgotten.

* * *

Splinter enters the Grand Nexus Hotel, quickly walking to the elevator at the end of it. The dog yokai that greeted him the last time he was here is on the same place, and he starts to talk the moment he notices him.

“Oh, you’re Rat Jitsu.”

“I need to talk to Big Mama.”

The dog yokai looks at him, unimpressed.

“Should I tell her that his, how was it—” The dog yokai looks up in thought, before he snaps his fingers. “His _ Snuggle Muffin Beefcake _ is here to visit her?”

  
Splinter’s leg bounces on the ground. The dog yokai sighs before using his communicator.

“Last time you were funnier.”

A couple of minutes later and Splinter is getting escorted by two other yokai towards Big Mama’s room. When they reach the room the two open the door, and Splinter doesn’t waste any time before entering it and start talking.

“We need to talk.”

Big Mama is in front of the back window in her giant form. She looks over her shoulder to Splinter, her eyes squinting at him.

“You’ve forgotten manners, haven’t you?” She quickly turns around, looking down at Splinter with a smile. “I’m happy to see that you’re still dindily fine, by the way.”

Splinter groans, and gets closer to Big Mama.

“I don’t have time for games. I need to know where’s—”

“Nah, nah, nah!” Big Mama waves one of his hands back and front in front of Splinter’s face. “If you don’t address me correctly, you won’t get a single thing for me!”

  
Splinter looks down, and breathes slowly. He raises his head and looks straight to Big Mama’s face.

  
“My…” Splinter looks to the ground. “ _ Sassy Sugar Badger _, I need to know the whereabouts of one of the Battle Nexus fighters.”

“That’s more like it!” Big Mama clasps her hands together, a smile on his face. “So, what’s the sudden little inquiry about?”

“Do you know where Nameless is?”

Big Mama stops all her movements. Splinter squints his eyes.

“Oh, you know how these things go!” She suddenly comes back to it, shrugging with all her arms. “Sometimes you fight dandily well, and sometimes you just—poof!”

“Did he die?”

“In the middle of a fight!” Big Mama laughs, covering her mouth. “Can you believe it? He was about to win, and the bastard’s heart just stops, right there!”

Splinter looks down, clenching his fists. Big Mama looks down, and a smirk appears on his face.

  
“Say, what’s the sudden interest in Nameless, anyway? You barely talked to him.”

Splinter sighs, profoundly. He looks to the side before speaking again.

“Because he took one of my boys.”


	3. Desperation

“Shit, shit, shit!”

Leo tightens the grip in his sword, frantically looking down to the ground that he sees below him, but it’s too far and if he doesn’t do anything—

“Fuck this!” Leo moves his swords upwards a little. “Come on! Come on!”

He slashes downwards, his whole body moving with him, but when he hears the classic sounds of his portals relief washes over him, even when his body is rolling on the ground.

Eventually he stops moving, and he finds himself looking up, looking at a bright blue sky.

“Oh my god. I did it.” Leo starts to laugh. “Oh my god, I’m alive.”

Leo keeps laughing, putting a hand in front of his face and another on his stomach.

“Wait.” His laughter eventually stops and he looks down. He checks the middle of his body. “Where is the…?”

Leo looks up, confusion all over his place, and it only escalates when he sees that he’s in a grassy field, with some trees spaced around. He looks behind him and sees a beach, and when he tries to look up Leo quickly puts a hand over his eyes, trying to block the rays of the sun above him.

“Wait, wait, wait…” He quickly gets up, almost falling down in the process. “This can’t be happening. Where…”

  
Leo starts looking everywhere, but stops when he sees something near one of the trees. He starts walking towards it, and when he’s close he notices that it’s a manhole. He looks around, but he only sees more grass and trees. He looks down again, and carefully moves the cover of the manhole with his sword; he sees the end of it, and although there’s no ladder it doesn’t seem to be very far off.

“Well…” Leo looks up, before shrugging to himself. “I’ve had worse ideas, that’s for sure.”

Leo jumps through the manhole, and he quickly reaches the end, crouching from the fall and stopping himself with a hand to the ground. When he looks up, he sees he’s in the lair, in the main room.

“What the…” He looks around, seeing everything in its place: the skateboard ramps, the rest of the rooms, the kitchen, the sound of the TV—

  
Leo raises an eyebrow, gets up and starts walking towards the TV Room.

“Raph? Donnie? Miguel?” Leo looks around, his pace getting quicker. “Dad? April? Anyone!?”

He reaches the TV Room, and sees that there’s a video playing: there’s a tiny Raph inside a crate, stomping on it, a smile on his face. There’s something yellow flowing out of it, but something quickly gets in the middle of it.

  
“Blue, could I try some of the lemonade?”

Leo opens his eyes wide; it’s his father, but he looks so young. His eyes quickly look towards the hand that is offering a cup of lemonade.

“Of course, Pops! But you gotta pay first!”

“Ah, I guess it’s only fair.” The Splinter in the video takes out a hand from one of his pockets, and drops some coins in the crappy wooden table. “Is this enough?”

“Yep!” The hand in the video gives the lemonade to Splinter, and then he view turns around, looking at the young Raph. “Look, Raph! Our first sell! We’re gonna get rich!”

“Heck yeah we are!” The young Raph flashes a smile to the camera. “This was a great idea, Leo!”

The video keeps playing, but Leo looks to the ground. “What is this...?”

Leo jumps when he suddenly hears clapping. He readies his sword, his eyes darting to every place in the room, stopping in Splinter’s old chair.

“What an interesting memory.” Leo grips his sword tighter, the person in the chair continuing to talk to him. “So you lived in the sewers since you were young…”

“Off the chair, bucko. I don’t know who you are—”

“Of course you don’t.” The person suddenly gets up, and Leo sees a human with white hair, with a slender frame. “But then again, you don’t know a lot of stuff.”

Leo scoffs. “Hah. What are you, my secret diary?” Leo takes a step forward. “Piss off somewhere else, yeah?”

The man turns around, and Leo squints his eyes a little; the man doesn’t have any identifiable traits, except his eyes, which are of a vibrant green color.

Leo gasps.

“Hey, you’re the reason why I’m here!?” He points the sword at the man, who doesn’t move. “Where are my brothers? Where is this place?”

The man sighs, looking utterly bored. He turns around, and when he turns to look back on Leo he’s holding a replica of the odachi.

  
Leo takes a step backwards.

“We can talk, sure.” The man moves the odachi in front of him, where a green portal appears. “But first, why don’t we have a little fight?”

Leo gulps, and gets ready.

* * *

It has been two weeks since Leo disappeared.

The city is as calm as ever, the night sounds relaxing Raph a bit as he traverses with Donnie, Mikey, Splinter and April towards the library. He notices that no one is saying anything and thinks about breaking the silence, but he can’t come up with anything.

When they reach the place, Splinter turns to look at all of them.

“Okay boys, me and April will continue the search in the yokai library.”

They get inside the human library, already closed. All the group marches towards the book where the mystic library was last time, and Raph is glad to see it’s still in the same place, since that means they won’t have to waste time searching for it.

Donnie is about to grab the book when Splinter talks.

“Okay, be careful you three.” He looks to Raph. “If anything happens, just contact April and—”

“I know.” Raph says, smiling at his father. “Same goes for you, Pops.” He then looks at April. “Take care of him, will ya?”

April winks at him, although it’s a little bit off. “You got it. Be careful, okay?”

Donnie looks to Splinter and April, and when they both nod he grabs the book and opens it. The book starts to levitate in the air and grow in size. April looks at Mikey and pats his head before getting with Splinter closer to the book, that eats them two and falls to the ground.

“Okay—” Donnie sighs before crouching and grabbing the book, “we’re gonna go to the history and art sections today. Remember, we can’t bring everything with us, so just—check everything that seems important here.”

“We know.” Mikey says, and starts walking away.

Raph looks between him and Donnie, not sure of what to do. Donnie just starts walking in the opposite direction, waving his hand.

“It’s ok, I’ll go to the history section by myself.”

Raph tries to say something, but he can just watch as Donnie leaves him. He quickly sets pace to the art section, and when he reaches he sees Mikey sitting in one of the tables, a book open in his lap.

Raph decides to look for books himself, and starts to check the ones he hasn’t read yet.

* * *

April and Splinter are checking every book they can in the possessions section, both of them quietly reading. April sighs angrily and almost throws the book, but Splinter stops her hand. He looks up, and April groans and sets the book on the table.

“I’m just so done, man!” April whispers to Splinter, who closes the book he had on his hand and grabs another one from the pile they had. “I can’t believe Big Mama won’t help us. I hate her so much—!”

  
April stops mid-sentence when Splinter gives him another book, and she reluctantly opens it, but doesn’t stop speaking.

“And why has this Nameless dude, or L, or whatever he’s called, possessed Leo? I’m gonna kick his sorry ass I swear.”

“I do not know, April.” Splinter’s grips on the book pages tightens. “But we will find a way to bring him back.”

He stays quiet for a few seconds after that, looking down.

“If I had accepted Big Mama’s help, she would have trapped Leo in the battle nexus; she still wants Nameless, no matter how he is.”

April pats Splinter’s head, and the man looks at her. She just smiles.

  
“We’ll get him back, Splints.”

Splinter smiles, and lessens his grip on the book.

“Yeah, we will. I’m certain of it.”

* * *

Raph groans and puts the book back in the shelf. This is the third book he’s read from beginning to end, and nothing useful has come out of it; like the hundreds of books he’s read these past two weeks.

“Dammit!” Mikey closes the book, throwing it away from him. “This isn’t helping anyone!”

“Hey!” Raph gets close, putting a hand up. “I know how you feel, but we have to keep trying.”

“Why?” Mikey groans and passes a hand to his face, wincing in pain when he touches his cheek. “I just—We’ve been at this for two weeks, and we haven’t found nothing useful!”

“ _ We _ haven’t found something useful! Maybe Donnie—”

“Dee doesn’t even like coming here!”

Mikey screams, and instantly shuts his mouth with his hands, looking to Raph with wide eyes. Raph’s breath hitches.

“W-what do you mean?” When Mikey keeps his hands over his mouth, Raph rushes to his side and shakes him by the shoulders. “Mikey! What do you—”

“He said so himself!” Mikey puts his hands over his eyes. “I heard him when he was in the lab, he was talking to Shelldon and—”

A loud crash sounds through to the entire building, making both brothers stop talking and look around, Raph getting Mikey behind him.

“W-what’s that!?”

“I don’t know!”

  
Raph keeps looking everywhere, and suddenly he hears another thing.

Donnie’s scream makes his blood run cold.

* * *

Donnie moves between the rows of bookshelves, grabbing some of them and taking them to the table near him, already stacked full of books, some of them half open.

He grabs another one and checks the cover before sighing. He looks at the table full with all the books, and his eyes land on the red book that transported them to the mystic library. His grip on the book in his hand tightens.

  
“Why was I so stupid…?” He puts the book back into place with a little too force, the entire bookshelf trembling a little. He then looks down, talking to himself. “What’s the point of this anyway…?”

He stays there for a couple of seconds, not moving an inch, until he passes both hands through his face, and looks back to the table, this time determined. He takes a step towards it and—

“Fancy meeting you here.” Donnie’s whole body stops the moment L puts the odachi in his neck from behind. “I wouldn’t scream if I were you, Donatello.”

Donnie clenches his fists, hard, and winces a little when he breathes and feels the sword in his neck. He talks through gritted teeth.

“What do you want?”

L smiles. “Ah, I see you understand, good. Your brother’s memories are of you being the smartest, so that makes sense.”

“What?” Donnie moves his neck enough to look at L in the eyes. “What about Leo? What have you—”

L presses the sword a little, making Donnie choke on his words. “Tch, tch, tch. I’m the one talking here, remember?” He then snaps his fingers. “Here, let’s make this easy for you.”

L then points to the finger, and Donnie’s face shifts into terror when he sees the exact book L is pointing towards; the book that works as an entrance to the mystic library.

“I know one of those books works as an entrance to a more useful library than… whatever this is.” L puts a hand on Donnie’s shoulder, whispering into his ear. “So why don’t you tell me which is, and you’ll be able to live another day?”

Donnie looks down, breathing in quick breaths. He closes his eyes to try and calm himself, and looks back to the table before looking down again, grabbing one of his hands with the other.

He looks to the ground when he speaks.

“...Okay.”

“Good choice, kid.” L pats Donnie’s shoulder. “So, which of the books is—”

L gets pushed backwards when Donnie’s shell extends, his jets appearing and propelling him towards the table. He knocks it down, all the books flying everywhere, and he barely misses the red one, grabbing it at the last second before hiding it with his body.

Donnie turns around just in time to see L jump at him, sword up in the air, and he closes his eyes and puts his shoulder. When the blade hits him, he can’t help the scream that escapes his body, but he grits his teeth and jumps in the air, knocking himself with the ceiling and then going backwards.

“That was a stupid choice, brat!” L says jumping after him, and Donnie looks in terror as the sword gets closer and—

“Donnie!” Raph smashes the odachi away from L’s grasp, the sword flying to the side before falling to the ground.

Raph looks back and sees Donnie holding back tears, gritting his teeth. He then sees his shoulder, and the feeling that settles in his body makes him tremble in anger.

“Dee! What happened to your shoulder!?” Mikey screams in terror, grabbing his brother’s arm, but Donnie chokes on tears and pushes him away.

“Don’t touch it!” He then looks to Mikey. “I—I’m sorry, I—”

“Oh my god Donnie, it’s bleeding so much. We need to—”

“Enough!” Raph interrupts the two. “Mikey, did you call April?”

Mikey nods, looking back to Donnie, who’s still holding on the book. Raph grits his teeth so hard it hurts, and he turns to look at L.

L is looking back at them from far away, looking at the trio with an annoyed expression.

“Your brother is lucky I didn’t cut his entire head off.”

“Shut it.” Raph says. “Don’t talk to me or them.”

L snorts, putting a hand over his mouth. “Oh, excuse me, Mr. Angry. What are you gonna do about it?” He uses his hands to point at his entire body. “In case you have not noticed, this body is from your brother. Are you gonna hurt him?”

Raph has to stop himself from gritting his teeth before he breaks them. He feels something he hasn’t felt in his life, burning and churning inside of him. He hears Donnie’s sobs behind him. He hears Mikey’s quicky breathing. He can almost feel the veins in his neck about to burst.

L uses the sword to open a green portal, and suddenly a giant hand appears from it.

“Raph!”

Mikey quickly rushes to Donnie’s side, protecting him, but Raph summons his mystic arms and blocks the hand, that disappears when it hits them. Raph looks back before screaming. “Out of here, now!”

Mikey nods, and looks back to help Donnie on his feet. Raph rushes towards L, who just opens another portal. Raph blocks the hand that appears as easy as the first, but he looks in horror when he sees L jump over him and towards his brothers.

“Watch out!”

Mikey is the quickest to react, taking out his kusari-fundo and using it to grab L and throw him away from them. Raph looks in horror as he sees Leo’s body collide with bookshelf after bookshelf.

“Mikey! Be careful!”

Mikey looks in shock. “What!? He’s trying to kill us!”

“That’s still Leo’s body!”

Mikey is about to scream back when the book Donnie is holding suddenly opens, Splinter and April appearing.

“We got your message!” April says, his face looking everywhere. “What the—” Her face turns into horror when he notices Donnie’s shoulder. “Oh my god, Donnie! What happened to you?”

“There’s no time!” Raph screams, looking between them and the smoke where L was thrown. “We need to get out of here, now!”

Splinter looks at Donnie, the boy hiding his face from him. He turns back to Raph and is about to talk when suddenly a green portal appears below them, and a giant hand punches them all upwards, crashing through the ceiling.

“You…!”

Raph’s body crashes on the outside of the ceiling of the library, and he quickly looks to see where everyone is. He notices that all of them are close, and looks down through the hole they made.

He sees L grab the red book, who instantly opens and turns into a giant mouth. Before it eats him, L moves the sword again, creating a portal above him. Raph notices the furious look L gives him, that makes him shiver.

When the portal closes, he’s nowhere to be seen, along with the book.

They all reach the lair soon after. Donnie is not longer crying, but Raph notices his eyes are still red. Splinter looks between them all before talking.

“Okay, I’m gonna prepare some stuff to tend to that wound, Donatello. April, would you mind—”

“Not a problem.” She carefully let’s go of Donnie, who wobbles a little bit in place. She caresses his face before quickly following Splinter.

Mikey is trembling in place, and Donnie tries to speak to him, his voice coming a little hoarse.

“Mikey, it’s not that big of a deal. I’ll be fine, don’t—”

“Wh-How can you say that?!” Mikey screams, and when he looks at Donnie Raph notices the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. “Look at your arm, Dee! It’s  _ bleeding _ !”

“Again, this isn’t—”

“And it’s because of Leo!” Mikey interrupts, storming around the lair, Raph not sure of what to do “Leo hurt you! He almost killed you!”

“Mikey, he’s being controlled! You know that!” Raph tries to put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, but Mikey pushes it away with force.

“You always say that! But Leo was never like this! He never…”

  
Tears start to fall from Mikey’s eyes, and he falls to the ground with a thud, who reverberates in the silence of the room like an entire building falling.

“...Leo was never like this.”

Donnie looks to the ground. Raph looks to Donnie, and sees how the cloth around his shoulder is already full of blood. He then turns to Mikey, who is quietly sobbing on the ground, covering his eyes.

He feels like a failure. But he knows his brothers need him, now more than ever.

“Leo is still there, somewhere.” He sits besides Mikey, leaning as soft as he can to wipe the tears from his little brother’s eyes. “He can’t control himself, but I know he’s fighting from the inside. And once we rescue him, we’ll find a way to bring him back.”

Mikey doesn’t look at his eyes, but Raph doesn’t feel discouraged. He keeps caressing his brother’s head, careful around the cheek. His words don’t waver, because he believes in them. Even in no one else is.

He looks back at Donnie, and puts a confident smile on his face. 

“We’ll bring him back, together.”

Donnie looks to his eyes, and for a moment Raph doesn’t know what his brother is thinking.

He then sees Donnie smile, and his heart breaks a little.

“...Yeah. We’ll do it.”

As a big brother, Raph knows a lot about his brothers. And he knows when one of them is lying.

But Raph holds back his tears, because even if it’s just him, he knows Leo is still out there.


	4. Hopelessness

It’s been a month since Leo disappeared.

To everyone’s relief, Donnie’s wound wasn’t actually very deep, and he mostly needed to rest. Everyone is trying to keep an eye on him, but at every chance he gets Donnie sneaks to the lab to work on stuff.

  
Raph tries to ask him what he’s working on, but Donnie just ignores him. He doesn’t try to ask him again.

Raph also tries to keep an eye on Mikey, which is easier since Raph and him still have to stop the usual villains that try to cause havoc, but he feels horrible when most of the time the two are quiet, barely speaking between each other.

On their way back from one of the missions Mikey speaks, his voice a little rough.

“Raph, can I ask you something?”

Raph looks back, and sees Mikey looking down. “Yeah, sure.”

Mikey doesn’t answer for a while, but Raph patiently waits. Mikey stops walking, and Raph does the same, fully turning around. The only sounds around them are the usual city night ones, until Mikey eventually looks up.

Raph sees he’s crying.

“We’ll... get Leo back, right?”

Raph hurries to his brother’s side and hugs him, trying to protect him from everything bad in the world. He can’t help but cry as well, and both boys fall to the ground, embracing each other.

“We will! I’ll make sure of it, okay?”

Raph doesn’t expect an answer, but when Mikey cries even harder, hugging him harder, Raph can’t help but cry harder as well.

* * *

Leo jumps backwards, his feet smashing the grass below his feet. Nameless claps, a little further.

“Impressive. You’re still fighting back.”

“Shut it.”

Leo breathes, hard. He tries to take a step back and almost falls, but he’s able to dodge another one of Nameless’ giant green hands, rolling out of the way.

“But sadly,” Nameless chuckles, “I got everything I wanted from you.”

Leo finds himself suddenly lifted up, Nameless choking him. Leo opens his eyes wide, dropping his odachi and using both hands to force Nameless’ arm away, but Nameless doesn’t move an inch, just tightening the grip in Leo’s neck.

“To be honest, I feel a little sad about you.” Tears fall from Leo’s eyes, his arms starting to lose strength. “You couldn’t have known this would happen.”

Leo’s eyes start to close, his breathing becoming softer and softer, his hands failing to hold Nameless’ arm away from him.

  
Nameless suddenly throws Leo away from him, laughing.

“Actually, let’s play a little more, shall we?”

* * *

It’s been two months since Leo disappeared.

Donnie’s wound is finally healed, and he joins Mikey and Raph when they fight villains. Some of the banter is still there, but the lair is pretty much quiet.

Splinter tries to make jokes often, but most of them fall flat. Raph knowns he tried to contact Big Mama, but she was nowhere to be found.

One day Raph is going to ask him something, but before he can open Splinter’s bedroom door he hears something. He stays as quiet as he can, and eventually he understands that his father is crying.

Raph can’t sleep much that night.

* * *

Leo is on his knees, breathing hard. A green hard appears out of a green portal and punches him straight in the stomach, sending him flying towards the beach.

“So you finally ran out…” Nameless walks towards Leo, whose body just fell into the sand. “It took much more than I thought, I’ll give you that.”

Leo doesn’t move an inch, just looks to the ground, his eyes almost closed off. He doesn’t react when Nameless is right beside him, just keeps breathing, gripping the odachi weakedly.

Nameless just looks down on Leo before speaking, softly.

“The least I can do is tell you that it’s inevitable,” Nameless says, crouching and patting Leo’s head, “since in order to truly regain my strength I must eliminate every trace of you in this body, memories included.”

Nameless looks towards the ocean, a tiny smile on his face.

“At least your pain will end soon enough. Don’t worry.”

Leo closes his eyes.

* * *

It’s been almost three months when Raph, Donnie and Mikey see L again.

They’re exploring the town at night when suddenly they see him, in the distance. L is sitting in the ceiling of a construction site, looking at the night sky.

Raph looks with wide eyes, his body frozen in place. Donnie grits his teeth, and Mikey jumps towards L, throwing his weapon.

“Mikey!” Raph reacts, following quickly behind. “No! Stop!”

Mikey simply screams, but before his weapon reaches L the man just uses the odachi to block the hit, and then grabs the chain, jousting Mikey upwards. Raph and Donnie quickly go to Mikey’s side; he’s in a metal pipe, struggling to get his weapon from L’s hold.

“Let go of it!”

  
Raph and Donnie go into fighting positions when L finally stands up, looking at them. He gives them a raised eyebrow and a smile.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

“Leave Mikey alone, you piece of shit!” Donnie screams, launching himself towards L with his tech-bo raised. L simply blocks the hit and jumps, cutting one of the jets of Donnie’s jetpack with the sword and quickly tying him with Mikey’s weapon before kicking him down, bringing Mikey with him.

“No!” Raph tries to grab a hold of Mikey but fails, both of them falling downwards. Raph summons a mystic arm but a green portal appears in front of him, a giant hand punching him in the face and sending him towards an abandoned building nearby.

“Come on, you know they won’t die because of that.” L drops in the building quickly after, and Raph tackles him to the ground.

“Leo! Please fight back! I will—”

  
L uses his legs to push Raph away, and he groans while he gets up.

  
“Jesus, you’re gonna bust my head. Don’t talk so loud.”

“Shut it! I wasn’t talking to you!” Raph grips his weapons tighter. “Leave my brother’s body!”

L looks up, touching his chin with the tip of the sword before laughing. “ I don’t think I will.”

“Raph!”

When Raph looks towards the voice he sees Mikey and Donnie approaching him through the hole he made after crashing. L rolls his eyes and opens a couple of green portals, green hands appearing from them like tentacles that go towards the two brothers, forcing them to retreat.

“Stop!” Raph tries to go after them but L attacks him, forcing him to stay in place. Raph tries to look again to his brothers but he gets punched in the face and stumbles backwards.

“Come on, don’t space out in front of me.”

Raph greets his teeth and catches his breath, barely avoiding an attack from L, who only manages to scratch him in an arm with the odachi. After that L takes a couple of steps backwards, creating green portals from where hands appear.

“Why are you doing this?!” Raph screams, blocking attack after attack. “Leave my family alone! They don’t deserve this!”

“You talk like I care.” L says, matter of factly. Raph screams and jumps towards him, but he simply moves to the side, making Raph fall to the ground.

Raph groans before speaking again.

“Don’t worry Leo!” Raph says, getting up. “I’ll save you! I’ll force this asshole out of your body, and then—”

“Leo cannot hear you, idiot.” L sighs, passing a hand through his face. “I can’t believe you are the leader, but then again that explains why you are all so incompetent.”

“Enough!” Raph screams again, summoning mystic arms and grabbing L. “Don’t talk! You don’t know anything about us!”

Raph’s grip on L’s body becomes stronger, and for a moment Raph actually sees L open his eyes wide, looking down. But then—

“He can feel this, you know?”

“I told you to shut—!”

“Your brother can feel the pain.”

Raph suddenly stops, his grip instantly getting loose. In a single second, L opens another green portal, a giant hand smashing Raph through several floors until it pins him on the ground.

“So you still think you have a chance…” L murmurs to himself, jumping carefully over the debris until he reaches the floor.

Raph is still pinned by the giant hand, but he manages to get on all fours, his head looking down. He talks, but L makes a face to him.

“What? I can’t hear you.”

L gets a little closer, and finally hears Raph, sobbing.

“Please…” Raph tries to look up, but his head falls down, tears falling from his eyes. “Let my brother go, I beg you…”

L opens his mouth a little. He stays there quiet, simply listening to Raph cry and beg for his brother’s life.

Eventually, L gets closer, and crouches in front of Raph.

“Don’t worry.” He says, softly. “In a short time, he’ll disappear. He won’t feel pain, I can assure you.”

Raph just cries harder, his face on the ground. “Please, please, just bring him back… I can’t…”

L looks at Raph for a short while before a smile appears on his face. He then gets up, and takes a couple of steps backwards and raises the odachi.

“You clearly care about your brother, I can see that.”

Raph feels the green hand disappear, and he’s finally able to look to L.

L’s smile simply widens, before creating a blue portal a couple meters above him.

“And I know that you would die for him.”

Raph’s eyes widen when he sees construction materials appear from the portal. Raph finds himself pushing L away before a metal bar hits him and throws him to the ground again. He tries to get up but he’s simply overpowered by the objects hitting him, pinning him down.

Raph covers his head while the objects keep falling on him, but he can hear L laugh close by.

That’s not his brother’s laughter.

Eventually, the blue portal closes, and the objects stop falling. Raph coughs, hard, and tastes metal. He tries to open his eyes but only manages to open one, seeing L get closer.

“I wonder, if I kill you, will your brothers have the balls to finish me off?” L snickers, before raising the sword. “I guess there is only one way to find out.”

Raph tries to move, but he can’t; his entire body is pinned by metal bars, pipes, construction materials and he can barely feel it.

He hears it, suddenly; the sound of a sword falling down.

Raph closes his eyes.

* * *

Leo opens his eyes.

His body is still on the beach, the beach waves hitting his back; but Leo doesn’t move an inch. He just breathes, his eyes looking at the ground.

Suddenly, a voice is heard. Leo opens his eyes wide, tears falling down from his face.

“Raph…”

Leo grips the odachi as tight as he can.

* * *

Raph thinks about how he failed his brothers.

  
He thinks about how he told them how they would get Leo back, how they would one day just laugh this off, how Leo would be the first to make jokes about it.

And yet, he will be the first one to die, and he’ll leave his brothers broken and being the ones to pick up the pieces. He feels pathetic.

So he closes his eyes, and waits.

But the finishing blown never comes.

When Raph opens his eyes back he looks up, and although everything's blurry, he can make out the sword, a millimeter away from his face.

Raph also sees how it's trembling. 

"This—this shouldn't be possible!" L speaks, and slowly the sword goes up again. "You... You can't be—!" 

Raph just looks up, trying to stay conscious, but he just feels tired, and he can’t move his body, still trapped below all the weight. 

"Raph..." 

Raphs body tenses, as much as it can in his position. He opens his mouth again to speak and he only coughs, dust appearing in his face and making things harder to see from him. 

"I'll... I'll keep this fucker busy... So you protect them, alright?" 

Raph starts to cry, and he tries to get himself free as hard as he can, but he can’t move.

Leo’s voice, that was his brother’s voice.

He scratches the ground and tries to move his body and he feels pain and hears creaking but he doesn’t care because it’s Leo and it’s here and—

"I love... You all, okay?" 

Raph can hear the distinct sound of a portal opening, and he sees the blurry form of Leo's feet go into it. He sobs, trying to get himself free, but he can't. No matter how much he tries and cries and thrashes and moves, he can only see Leo step into the portal.

Raph hears Mikey and Donnie scream for him the moment the portal closes. He cries, trying to tell them what he saw, that Leo is still there, somewhere, but his voice doesn’t come out, and before he can’t help it he blacks out, darkness surrounding him and enveloping him in silence.

* * *

“You piece of shit!” Nameless punches Leo, throwing him around the grassy fields. “I should just kill you now, you fucking imbecile!”

  
Leo doesn’t answer, just keeps taking blow after blown, his body unable to hold himself up.

After a while, Nameless’ breathing calms, and he looks up, talking to himself. “This is okay. This was a possibility. A very small one…!” He says, looking at Leo’s body on the ground. He grits his teeth and kicks Leo in the stomach. “But a possibility nonetheless.”

  
Leo just coughs, his eyes fighting to stay open. He can make out the beach, close by.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Things are still on their course. I’ll make her pay.”

Nameless leaves, somewhere.

After a short time, Leo starts crawling towards the beach, using only his right arm.

He doesn’t notice how his left arm has become transparent, the hand nowhere to be seen.


	5. Love

_ Raph... _

_ I'll... I'll keep this fucker busy... So you protect them, alright? _

_ I love... You all, okay? _

Raph suddenly opens his eyes, instantly regretting it the moment a blinding light hits his eyes. He closes them just as fast and groans. His entire body hurts and feels stiff. His throat is dry, and he feels he hasn’t eaten a single thing in ages.

He tries to open his eyes again, much more slowly this time, and he notices he’s in his room. He tries to talk but his sore throat just makes him cough very hard, making it hard to breathe.

After some seconds he manages to stop coughing and start to breathe again, and Raph’s about to call for someone when he hears something break close by; he whips his head fast towards the noise and groans when his vision spins a little.

A second later his sight returns and he sees Mikey on the entrance of his room, a broken plate by his feet.

“Mikey…!” Raph starts to cough, but much more softer than before. “Y-your feet! Be careful”

Mikey, with his eyes wide open, looks down to the broken plate, and then back to Raph, who’s still coughing. Mikey moves into the room avoiding the broken pieces, his mouth trembling.

Raph finally stops coughing, and when he looks up Mikey is right beside him. Raph just looks up, unsure of what to say.

“Two days.”

Raph is about to ask Mikey what he means when he’s suddenly tackled into a hug. Raph feels the tears that Mikey is dropping, his voice coming in quick bursts.

  
“You were asleep two days…! I was so scared, I thought— We went to a doctor in the mystic city and he said you’d be fine but I was— I thought you wouldn’t…!”

Raph feels his own tears start to fall from his face. He hugs Mikey back, hard.

  
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Mikey, I—”

“Donnie said you just needed rest but you weren’t waking up, and…!”

Raph feels Mikey hugging him harder, and he just sobs, putting his head in his little brother’s shoulder. He has a lot of things to say, but right now he just feels the tears coming out, and he just keeps hugging Mikey, patting his head to make sure he knows he’s fine.

“Raph!”

Raph and Mikey look up and see Donnie, who quickly embraces both of them.

  
“Don’t ever, EVER, make us worry again like this.” Donnie says, hugging Raph stronger.

Raph feels Donnie pat his head, and get close to his ear, speaking softly. His voice trembles a little.

“ _ Please _ .”

Raph nods, and when he feels Donnie’s tears, he can’t help but cry harder, which in turn makes Mikey cry harder.

“Wait!” Raph suddenly says, tears still falling from his eyes. “I saw Leo—The real Leo, he’s still there, you have to—”

“We know.” Donnie says, smiling, tears all over his face. “Before he entered the portal, we—we saw him. It was him.” He chokes a sob. “It really was him.”

Donnie puts his head in Raph’s shoulder again, crying. Raph caresses his head, slowly, while he regains his breath.

“I’m so sorry,” Mikey sobs harder, “I’m so sorry, Raph, we didn’t believe you, I’m—”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Raph says, getting Mikey closer and embracing him harder. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Mikey nods, through his tears.

Raph wipes his tears with his arm, and puts a confident smile, his heart now sure. He looks at Mikey and Donnie before talking.

“We’ll save him together. No matter what.”

Even though their faces are covered in tears, Donnie and Mikey smile confidently back, and Raph feels he can take on the entire world.

* * *

“My name… is Leo. I’m a mutated red-eared slider turtle.” Leo crawls a little further. “My brothers are Donnie, Mikey and Raph. Our father is Splinter, a mutated rat, who is also Lou Jitsu.”

He stops for a moment, catching his breath, before continuing to drag himself. “April is the only human that knows about us. I also know Hueso, who helped me find my brothers once, and…”

Leo stops, dead in his tracks. He looks down for a second, but then moves his head and continues crawling towards the beach.

“My name’s Leo. I’m a mutated red-eared slider turtle. My brothers are Raph, Mikey and Donnie. Our father is Splinter, a mutated rat, who is also Lou Jitsu. We know a few yokai, like Big Mama and Señor Hueso. We don’t… know any humans.”

  
  


Leo’s keeps moving, as slow as a snail, the only parts visible on his body his right hand and arm, his head and his torso.

* * *

In a couple days, Raph is already back on his feet. He isn’t still on full strength and keeps apologizing to everyone, and each and every time everyone makes a variation of what Splinter told him the first time he apologized for his situation.

“Do not apologize. We’re more than glad to help you, my son.”

So Raph asks for help when he needs it, but he also tries to be as useful as he can; he tries to cheer Donnie and Mikey, he tries to gather and re-read every info he can on anything that remotely resembles Nameless’ behaviour and powers with the help of April, who spends a lot of time with him.

One day, when they’re reading in silence in Raph’s bed, April sees Raph keep glancing at him.

“Okay big guy, what’s wrong?” Raph opens his mouth but April interrupts him, raising her hand. “And, before you say  _ oh no I’m not doing anything _ just save it, okay? Please just tell me?”

Raph looks to the side, embarrassed. He scratches his neck before speaking.

“I just—I feel… bad.”

“Bad?” April closes the book in his lap. “What for?”

Raph looks down, his face quickly saddening.

“There was a point where… where I really gave up.” He joins his hands in his lap. “I really thought that we had lost Leo forever. I feel horrible about it.”

In Raph's mind there are thousands of justifications, but they don’t change the truth: if not for Leo showing up when he did, he would have started pretending for the sake of Mikey and Donnie, to force them to help him.

Raph jolts a little when April places a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, it’s okay.” She carefully pats Raph’s head with her free hand. “It was a tough situation.”

“I know, but—”

“You’re not a bad person, Raph. None of you are. It was, well, it’s a bizarre situation. But we’ll save him, all of us, okay?”

Raph looks down, and nods.

“Yeah.”

* * *

Leo’s torso is starting to disappear as well.

Leo crawls towards the beach, still holding on the odachi with the hand he has. He also uses that hand to crawl himself, but he’s getting slower and slower. He stops frequently to breathe.

“I’m… Leo. My… brothers are Raph, Donnie and…” he closes his eyes, but screams after a second. “Mikey! Yeah, Raph, Donnie, me and Mikey. The four of us, yeah.”

He eventually moves another inch closer, his body —or what’s left of it— going limp on the ground for a second. He breathes, and starts to crawl again.

“Yeah, the four of us. We only had each other, and no one else.”

* * *

“Donnie?”

Raph goes towards the lab, carrying a plate full of food that Mikey and Splinter made. He hasn’t seen his brother in hours, and while he’s pretty sure he’s just focused on his work like always, it worries him to think that he’s not eating enough.

“Donnie? I brought you food!” Raph raises the plate, looking around. “I know you want to work but you need to eat as well!”

Raph sighs and goes to Donnie’s table, putting the plate of food there carefully. It’s then than something catches his eyes.

  
One of the drawers is open, and inside there is some kind of little ball made of metal. Raph stretches his hand to grab it—

  
“No!” Donnie slams the drawer shut, making Raph jump. “What are you—When did you get here?”

“I, uh.” Raph looks down to the plate of food. “You need to eat. I brought you food.”

Donnie’s expression instantly relaxes.

“Oh.” He looks around, confused. “Wait, eat? What time is it?”

“Like, 3 pm?” Raph looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “Have you had breakfast?”

“Wha— Oh yeah, I did. I think.”

“Donnie…”

“Okay, I’m sorry, I forgot okay?” Donnie grabs Raph’s shoulders and starts to push him away. “Now, I’ll gladly eat what you brought—”

“No, wait—”Raph tries to stop Donnie, but the boy just keeps pushing him. “Donatello!”

“What?!”

Raph pushes his brothers hands out of his shoulders, and turns him around, pointing to the drawer.

“What was in the drawer?”

“In the drawer?” Donnie laughs, scratching his neck. “The usual stuff, Raphael! You know, projects, tools—”

“Donnie.”

Donnie stops rambling, and sighs. He turns around and looks at his brother in the eyes.

“Listen, it’s—it’s a project I’m working on, to help with the L situation.” Before Raph talks he raises both his arms. “But! It’s still in beta, and kinda dangerous, so—”

“Dangerous!?”

“No, listen, it shouldn’t explode, it’s deactivated. But—” Donnie starts to push Raph away. “I was scared you touched it, in case it activated on accident or something.”

“Oh.”

  
Raph doesn’t say anything when he’s being pushed away, but before Donnie closes the door to his lab he puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, try to eat, okay? And rest.”

Donnie doesn’t look at him, but smiles, patting Raph’s hand.

“Yeah, I will. Don’t worry. I —I’ll be out of here in a bit, I promise.”

“If you aren’t I’ll come to bring you out myself!” Raph screams while leaving.

Donnie snorts while closing the door to his lab, but his smile fades away when he turns around and looks at the drawer. He sighs and goes towards it. He opens it, and grabs the little ball, moving it between his fingers.

“I have to be more careful…”

He closes the drawer, and carries the tiny ball towards another room.

* * *

L jumps across the roofs of the city, the last remaining bits of light coming from the sun disappearing on the horizon as the lights in the streets start to turn on, people moving in them to and from places, each person with their own lives.

L moves with ease between the buildings, jumping and sliding, all the time while wearing a smile. He sees a particular building on his right, and stops in one of the roofs nearby.

L looks to the Grand Nexus Hotel, is smile quickly fading away. He growls, but shakes his head.

“Not yet.” He chuckles, looking smugly at the building. “Eventually, but not yet.”

He takes a few steps away from the edge of the roof, and uses the odachi to create a blue portal. When he sees another one appear at the roof of the Grand Nexus Hotel he walks towards the portal on his side, effectively moving himself to the roof of the hotel.

“Now, slow and steady wins the race…”

L crouches, and uses the odachi again, this time creates a green portal on the floor of the roof. The portal is much smaller, but when it’s created it starts to pulsate, making L grin.

“Great, this is great.” L stands up again, looking around. “Now, where should the next one be…”

L leaves the place via another blue portal.

Some time later the green portal pulsates again, growing a little.

* * *

The lair is surrounded in darkness, except for a single room.

Everyone is sleeping, except for someone.

Donnie opens a bag, and carefully starts to put tiny metal balls inside of it. He remains in total silence, the only audible noise the faint noise the balls made when they collide with each other.

After some time, Donnie exhales, and puts the now empty box to a side, closing the bag. Is then when he notices his hands shake.

“It’s okay, I got this.” He whispers, holding a hand with the other. He exhales, again. “I got this.”

After some seconds, his hands stop trembling. He straps the bag to his shoulder and starts to walk towards Shelldon. He uses the screen on his arm to turn him on.

“Shelldon, I need you to turn on the sensor on my chest.” Donnie looks down. “Protocol Apollo.”

“Apollo?” The robotic voice says back. “That’s—”

“No arguing.” Donnie sushes. “I have to go. You stay here.”

Donnie starts to walk towards the exit of the lab, and before he closes the door he reaches towards a cabinet, grabbing a tiny bottle of pills. He moves it between his fingers, a determined look on his face.

  
“This will work.”

He puts the bottle of pills in a tiny compartiment of his battle shell, and stretches his hand to grab two more things. He exits the lab and closes the door behind him, Shelldon and a faint beeping sound only remaining active.

Donnie moves carefully through the lair, grabbing the bag tight each time the tiny metal balls make a faint sound. He goes towards Raph’s room, and looks through the doorway to see his brother, snoring faintly. Donnie makes a tired smile.

After that, the softshell turtle moves towards Mikey’s room, and he sees his little brother sleeping all splayed in his hammock, his sheet on the ground. He sighs before going towards it, and carefully covering Mikey with it.

Donnie’s about to leave when he feels Mikey grab his hand softly.

“Hmm… Donnie…?”

Donnie bites his lip, but quickly answers, whispering. “Sorry for waking you up. I wanted to drink some water and saw your sheet on the ground.”

“Oh, I see.” Mikey says, and Donnie’s hand, the one not being held by his brother, starts to tremble. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Donnie says, softly, and when Mikey drops the hold on his hand Donnie uses it to caress his little brother’s head. When Mikey is sleep again, Donnie leaves the room quickly.

Finally, Donnie reaches his father’s room. He looks down to his hand and opens it; there is a device with various buttons and a card, a little crumpled. Donnie tries to straighten it a little, but stops when one of his tears hits the card.

He puts a hand over his mouth, leaves the card by Splinter’s door and leaves the lair.

* * *

Leo’s torso is almost gone.

He turns around and looks up, a bright light hitting him in the face. He then moves his head, and sees the beach. He’s very close by.

He groans and turns his body, facing the beach. He starts to crawl towards it.

“My name… is… Leo.”

* * *

“And we have another winner!”

The Battle Nexus erupts in cheers and screams, and in the middle of the arena stands a dog-like yokai, smirking towards the audience. A couple of feet behind him there’s another yokai laying on the ground, breathing hard.

Almost every seat is full, the most notable exception being Big Mama’s.

The spider yokai is on a room very far below the ground, the entire walls covered with formulas and weird drawings. She’s scribbling on a giant chalkboard, also filled with different formulas, words and even some marks here and there.

“Big Mama!” A yokai with an owl-looking appearance appears, saluting her before continuing. “Moth just won the battle!”

“Splenderous!” Big Mama turns around, a smile on his face. “Wouldn’t you mind giving him an encouraging talk and some dog food for him? I’m pretty sure he’s hungry.”

“Of course.”

The owl-lokai excuses himself out of the room, closing the door behind him. Big Mama fully turns around, and starts to write again.

  
After a minute or so, she talks.

“If you want to talk, then talk. There’s no one else here, little turtle.”

She moves his head towards one of the chairs splayed across the room, and suddenly the figure of Donnie starts to reveal itself. He looks at Big Mama with no visible expression on his face.

“That’s an interesting technology you have there, sweet pie.” She leaves the piece of chalk she was grabbing on a table, fully turning around to look at Donnie. “I’m assuming you’re here for the same reason your tiny pops was?”

  
Donnie makes a sound with his mouth, looking to the door. “You know that’s why I’m here, so stop wasting our time. Neither of us has a lot to spare.”

“Is that so?” Big Mama moves a little towards Donnie, her smile never leaving his face. “I don’t know what you’re expecting to get, but—”

Suddenly, an explosion makes Big Mama stop talking, the entire room shaking. She looks around and when she looks at Donnie again she sees that he has some kind of remote in his hand, and that he’s swallowing pills from a bottle.

Big Mama uses one of her hands to slap the bottle of pills away from him, and he grabs him by the arm, her smile now completely gone. She talks with a cold tone.

  
“That wasn’t a dandily surprise, sweetheart. If you—”

Donnie presses a button on the remote again, making another explosion take place. He quickly snatches himself away from her, and goes towards the door of the room. He presses a button from the screen on his arm and some arms appear from Donnie’s battle shell, who completely shut the door down.

“I’ll make everything clear, since there’s not much time left.” Donnie says, taking his tech-bo with his free hand. “Right now, the entire Battle Nexus and the Big Nexus Hotel are filled to the brim with tiny bombs, each one of them capable of making an explosion similar to that of 5 kilograms of TNT.”

From outside the door Big Mama and Donnie can hear people screaming and trying to get it open, but to no avail.

“The bombs are invisible and they don’t leave any smell traces. And with this,” he says, showing the remote to Big Mama, “I can make them all go off.”

Big Mama doesn’t waste any time in trying to grab the remote, but Donnie blocks the attack with his tech-bo.

“And before I forget,” he says, sweat dripping from his face. “These bombs are also connected to my heart rate.”

Big Mama laughs. “If you think I can’t make you suffer without killing you you’re under—”

  
The spider yokai quickly stops, all her eyes widening. She jumps backwards and moves towards the bottle of pills Donnie had on his hand. She grabs it and reads the name of the pills, and the bottle drops between her fingers.

“I took enough Diclofenac to kill a fucking elephant.” Donnie breathes hard, pushing his back against the shut door and sliding down to the ground.

Big Mama looks at Donnie, his voice wavering.

“Come on now, I’m sure we can—”

“I won’t make a deal with you.” Donnie interrupts. “You twist deals so you always profit. So I’ll threaten you instead. The rules are simple.”

Donnie raises one of his hands, all the fingers straightened.

“First, I’ll keep pushing the remote and making go explosions.”

One of his fingers curls.

“Second, in around 4 minutes I’ll be dead from a heart attack, and if that happens all the bombs will go off at once, even the ones in this room.”

Another finger curls.

“You have one way of getting out of here alive.” Donnie says, curling the last finger. “Tell me how to save my brother, and take Nameless out of his body forever.”


	6. Armageddon

Raph awakes to the sound of sirens blasting.

“What the—!” He tries to get up but miserably falls off his bed, going face down to the floor. He groans while he gets up, and feels someone touch his shoulder. When he turns around Splinter is looking at him with a serious look.

“Pops? What’s—”

“There’s no time.” Splinter shoves something in Raph’s hands; a letter. “I’ll wake up Michelangelo. We’re leaving in five minutes.”

Raph, still half asleep, simply nods. Splinter nods back and goes out of his room, leaving Raph alone.

Raph gets up and looks to the card in his hands. He opens it, and starts to read it.

* * *

“Alright!” The Battle Nexus announcer screams, making everyone cheer enthusiastically at the two yokai that are currently in the arena. “Get ready for out next combat, ‘cause it looks like things are gonna get messy!”

The two yokai in the arena growl at each other. There’s a shark-like yokai, built like a brick, wielding what appears to be two axes. And then there’s a snake-like yokai, wriggling their tongue, moving a double-edged sword between their hands.

“Three!” The announcer screams, making everyone follow suit.

“Two!” The two yokai on the arena get in battle positions.

“One…!” Everyone holds their breaths. “And—!”

A blue portal suddenly appears from the center of the arena, and L jumps from it, everyone looking confused. In the middle of the air he summons two green portals, hands appearing and attacking the two yokai in the arena, who get knocked out cold and sent flying towards the grandstands.

L finally lands, and he looks around him, a smirk on his face. He points his sword towards the sky, and more green portals surround him.

“Let’s begin, shall we?”

Giant green hands start to appear from the portals, and the entire battle nexus falls into chaos.

* * *

“I can’t believe him!” April screams, pacing around the tank. “How could Donnie do something like this?!”

Raph doesn’t answer, just presses the accelerator harder with his feet.

“As much as I regret his choice, he made a decision.” Splinter says, looking straight ahead. “It may be irresponsible, and reckless, and—”

“Dad!”

Splinter turns to look at Mikey. He sighs before continuing to talk.

“...But he made his choice. There’s no going back now.”

Mikey looks to Raph, but doesn’t say anything.

* * *

Leo is on the beach, breathing heavily. His entire torso is gone, the only things left of his body being his head and his right arm.

He looks back from where he came from, and only finds a glaring green night. There’s no grass or trees, only light.

Leo moves his head towards the beach, and speaks, his voice barely audible.

“My name… is Leo. My name...”

The mutant closes his eyes, breathing hard.

* * *

The battle tank crashes through Big Mama’s hotel, everyone inside quickly getting out of the vehicle.

“Let’s move, boys.” Splinter says, looking to everyone. “We finish this, tonight.”

Everyone nods back and they start to run inside, but Mikey stops Raph for a second with a hand on his shoulder. Raph is about to talk but Mikey beats him to it.

“It’s fine.” Mikey smiles, wide. “We’re all together, remember?”

For the first time since he woke up, Raph smiles, sincerely.

“Yeah, we are.”

They quickly join Splinter and April, and they all head to the Battle Nexus, weapons ready.

They walk through stairs and stairs, which Raph feels like take forever to end. He hears the sound of explosions going off, and his mind wonders for a second before they all reach the arena.

“Finally, it took you ages to come here.”

Raph squints his eyes and sees L, sitting in the middle of the arena. There are too much green portals to count around him, from different sizes, ranging from small or as big as him. Some of those portals have green hands appearing from them, moving around like tentacles.

Splinter takes a step forward, talking with conviction.

“Nameless, you’ll release my son’s body, right now.”

L snorts but quickly covers his mouth, his voice coming out muffled.

“Oh my god, you’re serious. You really think—”

He starts to laugh hard while getting up, and eventually he talks, moving the odachi mindlessly.

“Oh well, I guess I’ve got some time to kill.”

He uses one of his hands and signals the group to come and attack him.

“Come on now, don’t make me wait.”

Mikey throws his chains at L, but he simply avoids steps to the side. He’s about to grab the chain when it starts to combust, L widening his eyes and jumping away.

“Is that a new trick!?”

“No, this is!”

L looks behind him and sees April with a bow and some kind of plastic arrow. She shoots but L creates a blue portal in front of him, the arrow disappearing.

“What!?” April groans while she grabs another arrow. “That’s cheating!”

L doesn’t answer and instead snaps his fingers, and thousands of green hands go towards her in an instant. She runs away and slides to avoid some, and just when a couple of green hands are about to grab her Splinter and Mikey fight them off, making them disappear.

L clicks his tongue and starts to create more green portals, but Raph appears behind him and tackles him to the ground.

  
“Stop! This time you're—”

L kicks him in the face and pins his sword to the ground, effectively stopping himself from rolling around. He looks up but before he can talk Raph’s mystic arms trap him.

“Mikey, now!”

  
L looks shocked as Mikey throws his chains at him, that start to round him. Mikey pulls back on the weapon and when it seems that L will get trapped with them and Raph’s mystic hands thousands of green hands attack Mikey, throwing him to the ground.

“Mikey!” Raph looks with wide eyes as his brother rolls away from the hands, and relief washes over him when he sees Splinter and April, holding a bat, help him out.

“I’m fine!” Mikey screams, and when he looks at Raph he stretches his hand. “Watch out!”

Before Raph can react his body is sent flying upwards by a green hand that appeared right below his feet. He screams and fends it off, but then he notices his mystic arms are gone.

Raph blocks L’s attack with the odachi, one that would have probably killed him.

“Not gonna lie,” L says, smiling wide at Raph, “this is the best time I’ve had in years!”

“Shut it!” Raph tries to grab L but he kicks him in the stomach, separating the two. “Don’t think you can get away! We’ll get Leo back!”

L opens his mouth but before he can talk an arrow hits him in the arm, sticking to him. He looks at it and suddenly finds himself trapped in a red, unable to move his body at all.

“Yes!” Raph laughs as he falls down. “Good job April!”

Mikey jumps backwards to avoid some green hands, his back colliding with Splinter’s. They both get ready to attack again when suddenly all the hands go towards L. The moment the fabric starts to glow blue and make a zipping sound the hands break it entirely, liberating L in the process.

“We were so close!” Mikey says, and Splinter quickly pats him.

“Do not worry! Keep fighting!”

Raph summons his mystic arms again and uses them to soften the land on the ground, although he still rolls a little. He’s quickly joisted by April and Mikey, each one holding him in one arm.

  
April pats his shoulder. “You okay, big guy?”

“Peachy.” Raph says, smirking. “This asshole’s done for.”

Mikey nods, starting to rotate his kusari-fundo and making the tip of it go in flames. “Yeah, we were so close! We’ll definitely catch him!”

L creates a blue portal below him when he falls, instantly teleporting himself to the ground. He gets up, sweat in his face, as well as a smile.

“So that’s your plan, eh?” He laughs, passing a hand through his face. “And you think you can pull it off?”

“We know we’ll pull it off.” Raph grabs his weapons tighter, and points one of them towards L. “Mad Dogz don’t give up that easily.”

L laughs hard again, and doesn’t even look when he avoids another one of April’s arrows. After a few seconds hundreds of green hands appears behind him. Raph gulps.

“Is that so?” L grabs the odachi with both hands, his smirk going wide.

“Well then, let’s see if you’ll make it in time.”

* * *

The mutant on the beach opens his eyes, slowly.

There’s nothing above him; he doesn’t see any kind of sky, or sun.

He looks to his left and right, only to find a weird green color everywhere. He feels like it’s coming closer to him.

Suddenly, voices can be heard. He groans and tries to cover his ears, but he can’t; he only has one arm, and it’s going transparent.

At first all the voices sound unrecognizable from each other. Then, little by little, they can be differentiated, and understood. The yokai closes his eyes again, and listens.

One of the voices sounds commanding at first, but eventually softens. It talks about leadership, but also about how he knows he isn’t perfect, but he will try for his brothers.

The mutant then hears another voice. This one sounds annoyed at first, but eventually laughs and talks in hushed voices. The voice talks about things the yokai doesn’t quite understand, but his excitement is contagious.

Another voice blocks the other, much more louder than the last and sounding younger, but instead of sounding annoying or commanding, it feels happy, like nothing could ever bring it down. The mutant can’t help but smile.

Two more voices come, eventually. One sounds stern, but the mutant can feel that it comes from a place of love; the other sounds more joyful and cheerful, screaming her name and the mutant can’t help but chuckle softly when he hears it.

The green area around him comes closer, the only thing left the sand the mutant is currently on. With a grunt he turns himself, facing down, and uses his now transparent hand to write on it, slow and steady.

* * *

Raph and Mikey block more of L’s green hands and jump backwards. Raph looks at his side and sees April with Splinter, fighting off some more hands.

Raph gulps. They just have to hold on a little longer.

  
“Raph!”

Mikey pushes Raph to the ground, and the two of them barely avoid a giant hand that tried to hit them. Another one comes against them but Raph quickly summons a mystic arm and throws Mikey at his side, blocking the hand that disappears.

But Raph feels the air get knocked out of him when another hand appears from behind, sending him flying. He hears Mikey scream and watches as more hands grab his younger brother and lift him from the ground.

“No!” Raph rolls on the ground and tries to get up and go to his brother, but more hands trap him, making him unable to move. “Mikey!”

Mikey struggles but can’t move, and his eyes widen when he sees a giant hand go straight towards him. Raph tries to move but he can’t and he sees Splinter run towards him and April shoot an arrow, but they won’t be fast enough—

Something appears suddenly, and the giant hand that was going straight to Mikey dissolves. L growls.

“Of course you wouldn’t take long to show up.”

“Shut up.”

Donnie flies with his battle shell back to Mikey, attacking the hands holding him and embracing him when he starts to fall. Mikey hugs him back, and doesn’t let go even when they both land on the ground, safe.

“Donnie…!”

Donnie pats Mikey’s head. “It’s ok. I’m fine.”

  
Raph quickly gets up and runs towards Donnie, embracing him as well, and April quickly comes after, all of them crying.

“I can’t believe you would do that!” April says, hitting Donnie’s arm. “Never scare me like that, man!”

“As I—ow, stop hitting!” Donnie gets away and hides behind Mikey from April. “As I said, the bluff would work!”

“You wrote _ I’m ninety percent sure it will work _!” Raph cries, shaking Donnie’s shoulder. “That’s not a hundred percent!”

“Of course it isn’t! You can never be a hundred percent sure of anything, and—”

  
Donnie stops talking when Splinter wacks him in the head with his tail lightly. Donnie turns around and his expression softens, and he looks down biting his lip.

“I’m sorry.”

Splinter doesn’t say anything at first, but after a second he grabs Donnie’s hand, and puts it between his own.

“I’m happy to see that you’re safe.”

Donnie smiles, and it’s then that everyone hears clapping. They look over at L, who is watching from afar, as he fakingly wipes a tear.

“Oh, this is so touching. You’re really gonna make me cry here.”

“Shut it.” Raph says, going into position, Mikey and April behind him. “You’re going down, bucko.”

“Oh, you seem so sure!” L smiles wide, and green portals appear from behind him again. “But the clock is ticking, pal.”

  
Donnie starts to talk behind Raph.

  
“Okay, as I suspected, Big Mama planned for _ whatever this situation is _ to happen.” He says, nodding his head towards L. He then clicks on the screen on his wrist and a tiny compartment from his battle shell opens, Donnie grabbing something from it.

Raph glances from a second and sees that Donnie is holding an object similar to the thing that send Shredder back to his dimension.

“If we hit him with this, Nameless’ soul should be trapped inside this thing, and Leo will come back.”

L groans and screams at them, sending hundreds of green hands towards them.

“Hey, don’t bore me to death here!”

Raph blocks the attack.

* * *

There’s a mutant with only half his head in a patch of sand, the rest of the area surrounding him filled with a green color that engulfes it all. A single tear falls from his eyes, and the head slowly disappears.

Eventually, the last patch of sand gets covered with the green color.

But then something happens.

A soft glowing light emanates from the last patch of sand, and now it’s visible that in that little space were written the letters R, D, M, S and A.

The light starts to grow bigger and brighter, pushing the green away and allowing more sand to be visible.

Suddenly, it bursts, and everything turns white.

* * *

Raph is sent flying backwards but quickly gets up. He opens his arms and holds Mikey when he collides with him, securing him in place.

“Sorry!” The younger turtle screams, using his weapon to fight back more green hands.

“It’s fine! We’re a team!”

Both smile, but suddenly a blinding light forces them to close their eyes.

  
“What!?” L screams, holding his stomach with his own hands, but the light keeps coming out of him. “This—!”

Raph can hear the scream that follows, and the sound of something quickly pass close by. After a few seconds he looks around and sees the odachi by his side.

“You…!”

Raph looks towards L again, and shivers. The man has a furious look on his face, and even though he’s on his knees, Raph feels his own legs tremble from fear.

Donnie jumps behind him and almost puts one of the objects in L’s body when he quickly turns around and punches him with a giant green hand, the object breaking.

“Shit!” Donnie manages to say before colliding with the grandstands, a cloud of smoke appearing from the impact.

Raph gets up quickly but then he notices Mikey’s face, looking in shock behind him. When he turns around he sees the odachi, flying in the middle of the air, and Raph can’t help but look in shock as well.

“What the…”

Suddenly, a blue figure starts to appear, and they see that it’s holding the odachi. Raph doesn’t believe himself when he sees the blue spirit’s shape, but when it puts the odachi in it shoulder, Mikey covers his mouth and starts to cry alongside Raph.

“Leo…!”

Raph stretches a hand towards Leo, but the blue figure pushes him away, making an attack from L fail, who looks more angry and unleashed by the second.

Raph looks at the figure again, and hears everyone slowly recognize that their brother is right there, even without body. He wipes the tears off his face and gets up, helping Mikey get up as well.

The entire arena trembles, and L laughs maniacally.

“Finally!” L opens his arms towards the sky, closing his eyes. “All my power will be back!”

Raph watches as beams of green light start to appear, and then they hit L straight on, his laughter never stopping. He tries to get close but he feels some kind of force pushing him backwards, almost sending him flying. He grabs Mikey and puts him behind him, shielding him.

After a while the beams disappear, and Raph gulps as he sees L, or more exactly what’s behind him—a ghostly figure, a darker green than L’s portals, with his arms crossed. L smiles creepily towards Leo.

“Thank you for leaving this body, fucking moron.” L stretches himself, a pleasant smile on his face. “You won’t be holding much out there without a body, but me? Man, I’m gonna have a blast killing you all and Big Mama.”

Raph growls, but stops when he feels Mikey’s hand touch his shoulder. He look to his little brother, who nods at him. When Leo’s spirit nods as well Raph follows suit, and readies his mystic arms. He breathes hard, and screams with all his strength.

“Let’s go, Mad Dogz!”

L laughs loudly, and unleashes thousands upon thousands of green hands, who are launched everywhere in the arena. He then jumps towards Raph, wicked smile on his face.

Raph screams and blocks the attack, a shockwave sending everything around them flying.


	7. Resolution

Raph jumps, avoiding a pair of hands that try to grab him by the ankles. He sees Donnie fly towards him with a hand stretched and grabs it, the two of them going upwards.

“How are you holding, Donnie?!”

“Gucci.”

Raph looks down after Donnie’s statement, addressing the situation quickly: Mikey is jumping all over the arena while Leo’s spirit, April and Splinter are fighting hands. Leo creates a portal and everyone gets inside, avoiding L literally falling over them, the ground breaking below his feet.

He suddenly looks up, seeing Raph and Donnie.

“Donnie, get us out!” Raph summons his mystic arm and blocks a couple of hands appearing against them.

“I’m working on—!” Donnie gets cut short when a green hand grabs his arm and pulls both of them down. “Shit!”

Raph screams and grabs the green arm, making it disappear, but then he feels something collide against him, and releases Donnie’s hand to avoid sending the two of them downwards.

Donnie screams his name but Raph is focused on L right now, who’s holding him with the help of the spirit in his back, planning to make him fall all the way to the ground. Raph screams and releases himself, his entire body being engulfed by red mystic energy before a giant version of himself appears.

“Two can dance this tango, Raphael!” L laughs, and the spirit on his back engulfes him, making another giant version of himself. Raph screams and fights it, the green mystic monster fighting back.

“He can turn giant too!?” April groans, avoiding another mystic hand coming her way. “That’s so unfair!”

She gets herself behind a giant stone, and Mikey and Splinter appear, both breathing hard. Mikey looks around, confused.

“Hey, where’s—?”

Donnie passes flying by, getting away from a giant hand, that slaps him and sends him crashing towards the ground. Splinter quickly jumps and takes care of it, while April and Mikey help Donnie up.

“Dammit!” Donnie groans while he’s getting upright, dropping to the ground the broken artifact he was holding. “I lost another one.”

“You still have three more, right?” When Donnie nods, Mikey grins. “Then we can still do this!” 

“Yeah!” April dusts Donnie off carefully. “It’s difficult, but we’ve managed worse.”

Donnie looks at the both of them, and a smile appears on his face.

“Yeah.”

* * *

Leo’s spirit avoids giant green hands, jumping through portals all over the place, trying to get close to his body. The ground shakes below his feet and he looks up, seeing Raph’s giant mystic form stumble from a punch that L’s one threw at him.

Suddenly he looks down, and sees the hand holding his odachi start to turn transparent.

Leo’s spirit opens another portal and jumps through it.

* * *

Raph shouts a battle cry and tries to grab L’s giant form, his mystic hand barely touching him, and L counters by pushing him backwards, making Raph’s mystic form crash against a rock. Raph hears the screams of his family behind him, and he screams at them.

“Get away from here!”

Raph turns around and grabs the rock with his giant mystic hands, ripping it away from the ground. He notices L’s shadow loom over him and he doesn’t waste a single second before swinging the rock against him, hitting him square in the face, his entire mystic body flying and crashing in the grand seats, a giant cloud of smoke appearing from the impact.

“This is amazing!” L laughs, getting up once again. “I’ve never felt this much power!”

Raph growls and attacks him, using his mystic form to pin L’s one against the remains of the grand seats he just destroyed.

“Shut it! We’ll get you out of Leo’s body and trap you forever, you crazy bastard!”

“That’s a big promise!” L says, starting to fight back. “But then again, I’m still here, and your brother’s running out of time!”

  
Raph screams and tries to headbutt him but L’s spirit grabs him and throws him into the air. When Raph looks down his face turns into horror, seeing L’s spirit grow another two sets of arms, and L’s spirit grows a little in size.

Raph’s mystic form wavers for a bit, before Raph shakes his head and attacks while falling down, the entire arena filling with dust.

* * *

Far away from the battle arena, a blue portal appears, wavering, like it’s blinking in and out of existence. Before it disappears completely Leo’s spirit jumps through it, falling to the ground.

Leo’s spirit tries to get up, only to fall down again. He looks to his free hand and sees his left arm almost invisible. He shakes his head and gets up.

Leo’s spirit looks around the abandoned harbour, quickly checking everywhere, his eyes darting from place to place.

After a couple of seconds walking he stops in front of something; the remains of a cargo ship, cut in half.

Leo’s spirit elevates the odachi, holding it tight, and summons a giant blue portal, just below the cargo ship.

* * *

Donnie uses his tech-bo to clear the smoke around him, looking around in a panic.

“Are you all okay?!”

“Y-yeah!” April coughs hard, his eyes crying.

“Same here!” Mikey pops out of his shell, which Splinter is holding.

“I’m fine as well.” Splinter says in a hurried breath, and Donnie calms down.

“Okay, okay, that’s good.”

A crash is heard and the group looks up, seeing Raph fighting against L’s monstrous spirit. Mikey shivers in Splinter's hold, and he holds him a little tighter.

“We need to do something.” Splinter says, his voice wavering a little.

Donnie looks down, and grabs something from his shell. He turns around, the three remaining artifacts in his hand.

“We’ll go all out.”

“What?” Mikey releases himself from Splinter’s hold and gets closer to Donnie. “Are you sure? What if—?”

“There’s no other option, Mikey.” Donnie sighs, grabbing one of his brother’s hand and giving him an artifact. “Leo’s spirit can’t hold on forever without a body. Even if we could make a plan, we don’t have time.”

Donnie looks at his father’s eyes, and even though Splinter opens his mouth, he closes it again, nodding and grabbing the other artifact, Donnie holding to the last one.

“Okay boys, are we ready?” April says, getting ready another arrow.

The three of them look to her, confident looks on her faces. Splinter speaks, loud and clear.

“Let’s finish this.”

* * *

Raph’s spirit fights back as hard as he can, throwing punches left and right and blocking L’s spirit, but it’s just too much, a relentless barrage of attacks that just keeps hitting him over and over until—

  
“I got you now!”

Raph screams when L’s giant spirit pushes his fist right through Raph’s mystic form, grabbing the real him from inside it and taking it out. In a matter of seconds Raph’s mystic form disintegrates, and Raph looks up in fear to the wicked smile of L’s spirit, struggling to breathe because of the hold L’s giant hand has on him, which is only getting stronger and stronger.

A blue portal appears, and Raph looks up as a giant piece of metal falls from the sky. L looks confused and opens his mouth but before he can talk Leo’s spirit jumps quickly, using his odachi to cut L’s spirit arm and free Raph from the gold.

“Leo!”

Raph doesn’t waste a single second to hold his brother’s stretched hand, and Leo’s spirit creates another portal below them, sending them far away from where the pieces of metal are falling over L, who’s trying to block them all.

The rest of the crew quickly reach Leo’s spirit and Raph, Donnie being the first to ask.

“What the hell—?”

“Wait, is that the ship I threw at Shredder!?” Mikey asks, and it’s then that L’s spirit gets hit with the prow of the ship, the green mystic form quickly starting to fade and a cloud of smoke forming around him.

“We have no time!” Splinter says, and quickly checks Raph. “Nameless will try to hold in that body with everything he has, and each passing second his strength increases.”

April goes to Raph’s side, punching him lightly. “Are you ready, big guy?”

Raph smirks, cracking his knuckles. “ ‘Course I am!”

Everyone gets into a fighting stance when the cloud of smoke quickly dissipates, green arms and hands flying everywhere around L, who’s breathing hard.

“You fucking disgraces of life.” He spits to the ground, but his look of fury doesn’t waver for a second. “Who do you fucking think you are?”

“Shut it, asswipe.” Raph says, a serious tone on his voice. “Our brother will be getting his body back tonight.”

“Yeah!” Mikey makes the end of his weapon burst into flames, a smirk on his face. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop us, baby!”

Raph sees the veins in L’s body —Leo’s real body— grow, like they’re about to burst from the pressure. L’s looks at them like a dog with the rabies, his eyes darting between each of their faces, his breathing hard and his whole body tense.

“Is that so?”

All the green hands around him suddenly stop moving, and retract themselves, going behind L’s back. Suddenly, two green portals appear, one on each side of L, and when he sticks his hands through them the portals disappear, L now brandishing two swords, very similar to the odachi.

His voice doesn’t waver a single bit, as cold as the ice.

“Then try to stop me, you fucking brats.”

L jumps towards the group, the green hands in his back jumping and causing destruction in a big area around him, breaking the ground and smashing the rocks to bits.

  
Raph and the rest avoid the attack barely, Raph getting cuts all over his arms. He jumps backwards and grabs Mikey, making one of L’s attacks avoid hitting the younger brother, and then Mikey uses his kusari-fundo to grab one of the giant rock pillars nearby and pull the both of them away from a swarm of L’s green hands, that crash through the ground.

“We gotta get close!” Mikey shows Raph the artifact quickly. “We need to try and put this on him!”

“I know, I know!”

The giant rock breaks apart, L appearing from behind and jumping at the two brothers. Raph quickly puts himself in front of Mikey and blocks L’s swords, but the hit is so strong that Raph feels the ground around him break, a cloud of dust making his vision blurry, making him unable to notice the green that appears and grabs his neck, making Raph choke.

“Stop!” April shoots an arrow to the hand, that instantly dissolves. Raph is able to breathe and sees more hands go towards him, but Donnie and Splinter quickly dispatch of them.

L widens his eyes when he sees Mikey jump from Raph’s back towards him, artifact in his hand. L tries to get away but Raph’s hold on him doesn’t bulge, grabbing L’s swords and hands with all his strength.

Donnie activates his jetpacks and prepells himself towards L as well, stretching his arm as much as he can, the artifact in his hand vibrating when he gets closer to L’s body—

L suddenly screams, the sound very similar to dragging nails across a chalkboard, but much more amplified. Raph feels his vision go dark, and his body be pushed backwards with incredible force, and he doesn’t hear anything at all, a loud ringing filling his ears.

Raph feels the hands of one of his brothers over him, and suddenly someone trying to grab him, and after that his vision slowly returns. Raph sees the blurry form of Donnie and Mikey, until green hands grab them and hoist them upwards, Raph following suit soon after.

He groans while his vision becomes clearer, and he sees with horror that all of them, including April and Splinter, are being held in the middle of the air by hands, L in the ground smiling wickedly at Leo’s spirit, who’s lower half has disappeared.

Raph opens his mouth but quickly a green arm ties itself around his neck, and he struggles to breathe, choking. He faintly hears the rest of his family scream to him but the ringing in his ears is still present and he can’t understand them.

In the meantime, L is laughing at Leo’s spirit, moving the swords in his hands slowly.

“This is rather pathetic, don’t you think?” L takes a step closer. “All this effort, all this getting in my nerves, and you have accomplished nothing.”

L swings both his sword down, cutting Leo’s spirit arms and sending him to the ground. Mikey is sobbing, everyone trying to get themselves free, but the hands holding them just tighten their hold. 

L watches and Leo’s turns around, slowly, moving his head closer to the odachi. He sighs before talking.

“Still willing to fight?” L snickers, looking down on Leo’s body, who’s starting to disintegrate. “It’s fine, I’ll kill you first, so you don’t have to suffer anymore.”

Suddenly L sees a portal appear below Leo’s spirit, and notices he’s holding the odachi with his mouth. He tries to kill him but he misses, and when he hears the distinct sound of a portal opening he looks up, a blue portal just above Splinter’s head.

L jumps quickly but before he can reach Splinter he grabs the odachi with his tail and cuts himself free, then he throws the sword to L. The sword misses but L watches as it cuts some of the arms holding Mikey, and before he can do anything the younger brother moves his weapon, liberating everyone else.

L screams and shoots more green arms but suddenly they all disintegrate when an arrow from April hits him, the arrow quickly transforming into a red that traps him. The arms break it but suddenly he’s chained with Mikey’s weapon, and Donnie prepells towards L, Splinter in his back holding the last artifact left.

  
Raph sees as L’s eyes go full green, and an explosion sends everyone flying backwards. He looks at Splinter, and he looks at him back.

“Red!”

Splinter grabs the artifact with his tail and throws it at Raph, who quickly grabs it from the air. He feels Mikey’s chains grab his body and sees him smile at him.

“Get ready, Raph!”

Raph nods confidently and just lets his brother spin him around before sending him flying at a fast speed towards L and his thousands of green hands, who jump at him.

Donnie appears and transforms his tech-bo, becoming a dual rocket-propelled staff that Donnie sends towards the green arms, making them all disappear.

“Go!”

L looks furious around him and tries to summon more green hands but suddenly another one of April’s arrow hits him, entrapping him again.

“I’m so tired of this shit!”

“You got this Raph!”

L uses his swords to cut the red and attacks Raph, but he looks with wide eyes as Raph opens his mouth and bites down on the swords, breaking them. L’s eyes suddenly shoot to his shoulder, and sees that Raph has put the artifact on it. Raph laughs low, as the two of them fall downwards.

“I got you, asshole.”

L tries to get one of his hands to take away the artifact but Raph hugs him hard, making him unable to move a single muscle. L looks to Raph’s eyes with fear.

“No, no no, you can’t do this—”

“I can, and I will.”

“No!” L struggles, his entire body being engulfed in light. “You fucking brats, do you know who I am!?”

“I don’t give a shit.” Raph says, and hugs his brother’s body tighter, closing his eyes. “I just want my brother back.”

L screams, but Raph doesn’t move as they fall to the ground. Raph holds tight, waiting, as the smoke around them dissipates and his family gets closer. Donnie is the first one to speak, crouching to Raph’s side alongside Mikey and April.

“Are you okay? Did you make it?”

“Yeah, it’s over.” Raph breathes, and feels his whole body so heavy that he struggles to look at Mikey and April, the younger brother slightly touching his brother’s shoulder.

“He feels so cold…” Mikey says, looking around. “Where’s—”

  
He stops talking when April touches his shoulder and points towards Splinter, who’s holding in his arms the odachi and the remains of Leo’s spirit, who’s basically just the head at this point.

“Pops…”

“Is okay Raphael, I got this.”

Splinter gets close to Raph, and he slowly puts Leo’s spirit head in the place of Leo’s body, disappearing inside of it, leaving Splinter holding the odachi.

Slowly, Leo’s entire body starts to get surrounded with a faint blue glow, from his head to his feet. Everyone watches closely as the glow slowly disappears, but Raph starts to cry when he feels the warmth in Leo’s body again.

April looks, confused. “Did it work?”

Raph just nods his head, and suddenly everyone sees Leo’s eyes flutter and hears him talk, his voice sounding very sore.

“H-hey…”

After that everyone cries and piles over Leo and Raph, being careful but still embracing them with everything. Mikey is sobbing harder than anyone and Leo carefully pats his head, a tiny smile on his face.

  
“It’s okay, I’m here. I’m here.”

Mikey nods but keeps crying, and they all just stay there, crying and hugging each other for a long time, until Splinter makes them all return to the lair, for a well deserved rest that they all need.

* * *

It’s been a couple of days since Leo got his body back.

Raph is in their gym, training his arms with some weights, but his mind is somewhere else, until Leo appears and knocks on the wall.

“Are you busy?”

“Oh, no, I just—” Raph points to the weight in his hand, but quickly leaves it on the ground. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, don’t worry.” Leo laughs, but Raph raises an eyebrow when he sees him scratch his neck.

“Leo.”

“What?” Raph just gives him a look, and Leo sighs before going to sit at Raph’s side.

  
Raph patiently waits, and after a while Leo talks, but is so slow that Raph doesn’t hear it.

  
“What?” When Leo looks to the ground, Raph continues. “I’m sorry, you talked too low and I couldn't hear you.”

Leo bites his lip, but he breathes and looks at Raph, this time speaking clearly.

  
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry for not listening to you.”

“What? Leo, you don’t—”

“No, listen. Because I didn’t listen I got us into this whole situation.” Leo looks down again. “I made you all suffer because of me.”

Raph doesn’t waste a second to hug his brother, tight.

  
“We’re your family, dude. We would do this a hundred times for you.”

Leo laughs, hugging Raph a little tighter. It takes a while but he eventually speaks.

“Okay.”

The two brothers just stay there for a while until Mikey calls them for dinner, and finally the entire family is able to eat together again, with Leo back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this has been a journey, but finally **You're still There, Aren't You?** has reached it's conclusion!
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed it and liked it, and if you're curious about any part of the fic, or just want to tell me "hey asshole why did you write X thing happening I'll kill you" just throw me an ask on Tumblr and I'll probably answer, since I'm very proud of the end result.
> 
> I want to thank everyone who read this far, and I hope y'all have a wonderful day.

**Author's Note:**

> You talk to me about the turtles or scream at me in my [Tumblr](https://marron121.tumblr.com/)!


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